What's Destiny?

LEGO BIONICLE
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We hear this word pretty often, but we don’t get much explanation on this part. Destiny is one of three initial virtues, so it’s pretty important for Matoran, and it’s pretty important for us when we try to look at greater picture. But what does this word even mean?

I have a headcanon on this part, but I actually think it can be assume that it is canon, at least the way Greg Farshtey understands it. But let’s remember quick what we know about Destiny.

It is a thing that toa have first of all, because they can’t even become toa if they’re not destined to and they can’t become then turaga until their toa destiny is complete. Other beings were mentioned to have Destinies, including even Tren Krom (though it was stated by Artakha, and we don’t know if he had any legit sources on that).

Destiny, as it was explained by Greg Farshtey many times in the year of 2009-2010 is a “destination”, something you must achieve, and it’s not important how you do that. We can’t know for sure if this understanding wasn’t formulated later on, or if it’s how story-team viewed it generally. But we have things like prophecies in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, which kinda could support the fact it’s something you just do no matter how.

So, without further ado, what is Destiny? Is it some kind of program in a being’s mind that makes it do a certain thing? And the fact Mata Nui robot is the one who knows destinies of MU inhabitants could support this, but later on Greg Farshtey said that organic species could also have Destinies, and he likes to think they do (which is a careful choosing of words on his part). They’re not programmed, so that would mean no.

What is another explanation, then? Well, here it is: it’s plain and simple future prediction. That is perfectly in line with “just destination” formula. It’s not really clear how it was done, but it seems Great Beings were predicting particular things they needed to happen. Example: they saw that the Matoran will need rescue, and that toa were saving them, so they made toa Metru and made sure they will have all they need to save the universe. It could be done on their part with some devices, as the Mask of Clairvoyance is already a thing, and the Mask of Time is their creation’s creation, so they have technology to make that happen.

Does it make story cheap now? Well, any concept of Destiny has the flaw of lowering the value of characters’ decisions. In case of future it’s as realistic as it gets, because we also can hypothetically time-travel and get to know our future, does that make your life choices irrelevant? The Destiny as destination can be achieved many ways, which can include losing or not losing things you didn’t want to lose. So, even if you know you will beat your enemies, it doesn’t exactly mean there’s no chance you won’t feel that good after that. There’s possibility that Great Beings didn’t bother predicting too many events, because that would explain how they let some things break like Red Star or Mata capsules and didn’t fix them. Which means characters still could have their bu**s not exactly covered from hardships.

Does this theory have flaws? Of course. First of all it’s Teridax. This guy postponed the arrival of GSR by 1000 years, and does it really look like everything was predicted? What could that exactly mean in the stream of this theory, somebody changed the future somehow that what Great Beings should’ve predicted didn’t happen? That would actually explain why the third robot that was meant for Mata Nui to migrate in (instead of prototype robot) was actually never made as Great Beings literally stopped waiting for the GSR to come.

Even more confusing is Teridax actually achieving his Destiny of reforming Spherus Magna. If Destiny is a future, than it should’ve not just happen as it is meant to happen, it should happen in specific time. But is 101000 years later the exact time you should expect? In this case the thing with beings just being programmed to unconsciously do something they need to is more proper.

Did I just debunk my theory? No, I still think it answers many questions. For example it answers how the liquid named energized protodermis knows “Destiny” and transforms things accordingly. Well, if it’s just the future predicted, then as easily as saying that somebody was “destined” to transform in protodermis you could say that sugar cube is destined to dissolve in water. It’s just the future.

What do you think about Destiny in general?

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I don’t know, but it must be manifested.

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I think word you are looking is not prediction, but time/future manipulation. When you predict, you simply either discover potential future or the future that already exists, whereas your description sounds like manipulating future events to your liking.

Otherwise this fits. We know Kanohi Vahi can be created out of the Great Disks, so perhaps Great Beings created Vahi for this purpose and then melted it back into Great Disks. As for why Great Beings could do this while MU inhabitants could not, it could be explained as being only ones with necessary willpower to control it to its full extent. They already have superhuman creativity.

About timescales, I think Destiny simply means that the event will occur, not when it will occur and how will it occur. Great Beings are able to program the event into timeline with the full power of Vahi, but have little control over specifics because Vahi’s full power is still limited.

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The thing we are forgetting though is that Destiny in Bionicle is not just a component of the story, it is a “virtue”, a positive trait to practice. The way I see it, Destiny works as the equivalent of God’s Plan. Velika gave the Bionicle free will, but Mata Nui has a definitive plan orchestrated for them, a path they should willingly follow, even if they are not sure where that path might guide them. As Vakama said in WOS, destiny is not written in stone, you must discover it. They may don’t know what it is or when it will happen, but they must seek it, and it must be done through the other two virtues. Only with unity and duty can destiny be achieved.
Mata Nui can give glimpses through visions, like he did with Vakama, but even then he had to interpret the meaning, doing it wrong the first time. He can also manipulate beings into fulfilling his plan, as he did with Teridax making him choose the right Matoran to become the Toa Metru.

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Well, in my interpretation of Ignition’s interpretation, it is something that will happen, but how and when is still undecided, so striving to complete destiny is still meaningful. Not everything is destined. But regardless of how destiny works, I think destiny is plan of the Great Beings. Mata Nui did not seem to be sort of god that personally interacts with everyone. In canon, he paid more attention to his own mission than to his body, and got sick as result.

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The fact that he was paying attention only to his mission meant that he was too focused on his destiny. It may not have been programmed (at least in the deterministic sense), as evidenced by the AUs, but it was predetermined to a certain degree. I think that what happened was that Mata Nui was supposed to communicate the mission through visions and through subliminal messages to others, like how he manipulated Makuta in Metru Nui. Whether he did this right has already been settled, but in the story it seems to be both determined by the GBs and influenced by the actual changes going on. If all things had been perfect, likely only the first Toa team would have existed, but there came a time when more Toa were needed. Thus some Matoran became destined to become Toa.

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To clarify likely poor wording: I meant that Mata Nui was too focused on his destiny to determine destinies of all MU inhabitants. Also, the idea of Destiny I posited was not that all things are determined, but just that some events will happen in some way, such as Mata Nui reuniting Spherus Magna. That does not mean that bad things will not happen in between, just that specific good things will happen. But I very much agree with points about AUs and destiny changing based on need.

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Thank you. Now I see your meaning much more clearly.

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“Destiny, is hard to meet. It’ll hunt you down somewhere along the way…”

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Yet tgeir future was written in stars, and they were looking to achieve it. The problem was the way they would fulfill their future isn’t anyhow explained, so they ended up becoming horrible beasts and almost losing their mind. That’s probably what Vakama meant, but in the end the future that they knew should happen happened.

Yes, Mata Nui knows destinies, but that’s the actual mechanism behind it that bothers me. How can you know for sure something will happen if it all depends on some creatures with own consciousness? What if Vakama was killed by an acid spinner which he was dodging in large quantities, and without him other toa were captured, and the Matoran would not be saved? And, as I mentioned, Greg actually thinks Destiny goes beyond the Matoran Universe, so it’s not even a prediction inside a closed system. Clairvoyance seems appropriate as the technical aspect of knowing destinies.

@WaterGafna Yes, I kind was implying the ability of Great Beings to change future. I’m thinking they could be building the functioning robot in mere months using future prediction and changing instead of testing the mechanism itself. Like, if we assume that knowing the future will change it, then Great Beings could look up some event and realize everything goes wrong.

First example you would come up with: Mata Nui dying in his sleep. What if they saw it happens and then decided to change their mechanism and specifically add toa Mata as safe mechanism? Then they would check if it changes to better, and not bother with anything beyond this point because the mechanism works, and that’s better.

Assuming this we could even imagine what was so special about Teridax that he was able to do all this. Maybe he knew the future from Tren Krom and that information could be used to reshape it, to change the fate of universe by changing key points of timeline carefully to ensure he actually will get more than he was intended to.

Though, again, it is broken down by the fact he died in the end doing exactly what his Destiny was. Was it all still in line with Great Beings’ will, and they were okay with Teridax postponing the flight for 1000 years, were they top lazy to fix properly this annoying error and gone with the flawed mechanism just checking beforehand for it to achieve its goal anyway.

EDITED FOR DOUBLE POST - Spiderus Prime

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